Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 36 “What Is, ‘Peace, Peace, to the Far and to the Near,’ in the Work?” (1991) (7.23.2002)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, “Article 36 “What Is, ‘Peace, Peace, to the Far and to the Near,’ in the Work?” (1991)

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3rd part of the Lesson — Recording of Rabash, Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Vol. 2, Part 5, Item 46

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In Baal HaSulam’s article “The Concealment and Revelation of the Creator,” he describes the extent a person’s attitude toward reality alters the entire picture, from hell to heaven. He explains that in truth nothing actually changes. You are in Malchut of the world of infinity, in the final state. You are merely being guided through various impressions so that you may change your attitude toward them.

Nothing changes! You must change your attitude within the very reality in you currently exist. You cannot accomplish this in one go; therefore, you are led through various states, one after another, so that each time you will be able to deliberately change your attitude toward them, until you reach the final state in which you understand with absolute clarity that you have always been in it, you simply failed to perceive it due to your attitude, you did not realize where you were.

In principle, what we feel and call our world is not where we are, but rather where our attitude is. Our attitude reveals a specific segment of reality to us, presenting a picture of it solely in accordance with our attitude toward it. It is this perception that we designate as “worlds.”

There are no distinct worlds, no separate degrees, and no discrete states; rather, my ever-changing attitude toward the environment in which I am immersed is what alters this picture for me. It is this shifting picture that I refer to as degrees or worlds.

Therefore, if we try to relate to reality in a more correct way, we will return to the true reality and discover it as it really is. What follows from this? If we do not work on improving our attitude to the state we are in, the state remains inert, it is dead. This implies that I am failing to consciously define my attitude to my world and my state. However, the moment I begin to define my attitude, seeking to evaluate it differently, from a new perspective, I embark on the process of inner development.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/26, Rabash, “What It Means that the Generations of the Righteous are Good Deeds, in the Work”

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Question: Who is the Hasid about whom it is said that he “goes and does”?

Answer: In Kabbalah, the word “Hasid” is not someone who belongs to a religious community, but to the quality of Bina, specifically Hesed (loving kindness) or the light of Hassadim. From this the word “Hasidism” originated.

If a person performs actions in order to advance himself toward the quality of bestowal and to acquire it through his own efforts, he is called a “Hasid.” This applies both to the intention and to the action.

Question: Is there any connection here with the washing of the hands with water, “Netilat Yadayim”? In Rabash’s article “What Do the Four Types Who Go to the House of Study Mean in the Spiritual Work” it is said that the Hasid has no hands. And since water symbolizes the quality of Hassadim, can this be connected with the washing of the hands?

Answer: “Hands” (Yadayim) here are called the vessel (Kli) of reception. A person does not want his vessels to be received for his own sake. He wishes to correct them so that they will be holy. This correction, called “washing of the hands” (Netilat Yadayim), is carried out by the fact that he takes the light of Hassadim, corrects the receiving Kelim with its help, and then he is ready to receive for the sake of bestowal.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/26, Rabash, “What Are the Four Qualities of Those Who Go to the Seminary, in the Work?”

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Question: What does it mean that if I change my attitude to reality, the world is revealed to me? How does this happen?

Answer: The world being revealed to you means that you have succeeded in perceiving the picture you are in with a different understanding of the connections between things. You suddenly see that people and laws that exist in the world have different connections, different intentions, different goals. You manage to discover a more inner layer of reality. This means that your attitude to all of reality has changed and you see another world.

To do this you must constantly strive for an ever more inner perception, try to see what is behind the outer facade. What does “beyond the Machsom,” the spiritual world, mean? It means that beyond this world you begin to reveal the connections between things, the plan of creation, which connects all the details in this world.

Then you see that there is a completely different intention there, not the one that seems to you from this side. And the connections are determined by completely different formulas, not at all what appeared to you before. You see that everyone bestows to one another, everyone loves one another, and there is nothing bad in the world, provided you look at it from the other side, in accordance with the true connections between things.

Rabash gives the following example: a person is given a desire for money. Suppose you see that a taxi driver whom you perceive as dull-witted as his car’s engine, as someone who is driven only to earn as much money as possible, who never turns on the meter, who overcharges you double the fare, and so on.

And suddenly, from the other side, you see that this person wants to bestow and to help his neighbor. He is constantly thinking about whom to take where and how to make it so that everyone will be as comfortable as possible. It only seems to him that he wants to earn money. In fact, he simply “reads” his state in the wrong way. His attitude is incorrect. But you already see this picture from the other side, from beyond the Machsom.

It is like looking at embroidery. On the reverse side there are always various knots and connections in which it is impossible to make sense. A person sees the front side, but he does not see all the true connections on the reverse. And when he is given the possibility to see the reverse side of the embroidery, he discovers the correct relations between things.

This is what we lack. But we acquire it by rising along the degrees and reaching the best possible state. This means that you see this world, which does not change (“the world continues to live by its own laws”), and at the same time the second side, all the connections that exist between the parts of reality. And then you can justify the Creator, see that it was always so from the outset, it is just that your vision was not ready to see it.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/15/26, Rabash, “What It Means that the Generations of the Righteous are Good Deeds, in the Work”

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From between man and man one learns how to behave between man and the Creator.

…you have to keep awakening the love of the Creator in this way, that you must always stand guard, all day and all night, when you feel a state of day or feel a state of night.

We say to the Creator, “Yours is the day, and Yours is also the night.” Thus, the night, too, the darkness of night, comes from the Creator… (Rabash, Letter 24).

We have all already felt what “day” and “night” mean. “Night” means that suddenly the desire disappears, indifference comes, and the taste is lost. It becomes difficult for us to listen about a person’s work on their correction; we grow tired of repeatedly speaking about love of friends and connection.

Then “day” returns: enthusiasm, upliftment of spirit, and a person absorbs every word under a powerful impression, moved to tears. He burns with desire and rushes forward ready to move mountains.

All of this depends on some tiny measure of the light that influences us a little more or a little less. Our whole life and death, our entire mood, good or bad, depends on this small measure of light.

These states come to us so that we will understand that we must rise above them and not take them into account at all. Just imagine, is such a thing possible? Notice how much you fall under the control of these states when they take hold of you, and you can do nothing: neither in a good state nor in a bad one, you cannot cope with your joy nor with your sorrow.

So how is it possible to rise above them? Does it mean being above the influence of the light? Of course, I cannot be above the light, but I can be above my reaction to it. After all, this reaction arises in my egoistic desires. I must hold myself above this pleasant or unpleasant sensation.

At times, I am drawn to spirituality and am ready to do anything for it, dreaming of attaining bestowal. And at other times, nothing moves me, I am as if dead and want only to fall asleep and forget everything. How can I rise above such states?

I must ask the light for help. But not to ask for a pleasant sensation, we are always ready for that, even in the most difficult situation. Although there are such difficult states when we can no longer even ask, and only want to disconnect from the state and distract ourselves with some corporeal goals, just to forget and not feel the suffering.

But if it is not such a completely suppressed state, then we are able to ask. And usually, we ask the light to correct the problems and make us feel good. We expect a pleasant state, a sensation, but this is not correct. We need to seek a force that will allow us to remain above the bad state. We must ask the light for correction, so that these states will not influence us and we will perceive the bad states as good.

We must feel that the bad state comes in order to advance us, and no less, but even more than the good state. This means that a person must bless the Creator for the bad just as for the good. Then we will rejoice at every change of states, because we will be able to be impressed by them and ask the light to give us a screen that allows us to be above the reaction of our will to receive. I will always remain above the impression of good and evil, adhering to the Creator and striving to bring Him contentment.

Then all these unpleasant and pleasant states will determine the height, the level above which I can rise and establish contact with the Creator with a request for love and connection. It follows that the stronger the darkness and the light, and I do not react to them within my egoism, but only determine the height of my screen above them, the more it will grow. There will come ever brighter “days” and ever darker “nights,” ever higher states, and thus I will ascend.

Therefore, always, both in light and in darkness, we must strengthen the love between the friends with all our might, so that neither darkness nor light will influence us or change our attitude toward our constant duty: to strive only for unity and love.
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From preparation for the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 3/28/13, Baal HaSulam, Letter 13

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Preparation to the Lesson

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1st part of the Lesson — Writings of Rabash, Article 23 “Peace After a Dispute Is More Important than Having No Disputes At All” (1987) (5.5.2003)

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2nd part of the Lesson — Writings of Baal HaSulam, “Study of the Ten Sefirot,” Vol. 2, Part 5,” Item 46

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3rd part of the Lesson — Preparation for the Convention

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Rabash, in the article “It is Forbidden to Hear a Good Thing from a Bad Person,” writes that if you observe that the advice you have accepted promises to increase your efforts, then the direction is correct; conversely, if it serves to reduce your effort, then it is incorrect.

Accordingly, if the action before you requires effort, then, apparently it comes from a good side and is aimed in a good direction. And if it does not require effort, then, it seems, it is directed in a bad direction.
What are “efforts”? A person might plan a bank robbery with the sweat of his brow. This is no easy task. Several people work on it, they prepare everything, and try their best. Desire obliges.

So what exactly constitutes “effort”? Relative to what are they evaluated? If an effort is added to a desire in order to realize it and enjoy it without any connection with the Creator, this is the effort of the evil inclination.

You can sweat your whole life trying to earn what you have set as your life’s goal, but that does not count as effort. Efforts in spirituality is that which leads you to adhesion with the Creator, that which improves you in some ways so that you become like Him. Everything else is not effort.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/9/26, Rabash, “It is Forbidden to Hear a Good Thing from a Bad Person”

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The evil inclination is our faithful guide, through which we will undoubtedly reach the goal of creation. What depends on us is how we perceive it. Either I perceive it within my desire to receive, or, in the opposite way, I analyze it correctly and understand that it tells me how not to proceed.

If it works together with the desire to receive, if it comes to me in its natural form, then it places all the pitfalls along the path into which I fall. But if I analyze it correctly and understand that, by enticing me toward something, it only draws me to bad things so that I may overcome them and instead prefer to adhere to the Creator, then from this I correctly reveal its help.

How else can I build independence? Abraham said: “If you go to the left, then I will go to the right; and if you go to the right, then I will go to the left.” I am sitting here now, and the evil inclination pulls me to the right.

I know that if I overcome its pull toward some pleasure, to do something, and instead of being drawn there, I adhere to the Creator, then this is adhesion with the Creator that I have earned through my effort. Now the ego pulls me to the left: “Let’s go enjoy there.” I must overcome this as well, but not in such a way as to withdraw into a monastery and destroy the desire to receive.

While the evil inclination is pulling me somewhere, I want to place the Creator before it—His greatness, His eternity, His perfection—as something that surpasses this attraction. I must ask Him to be reveal Himself, to give me strength, and to give me a group that will impart the awareness of His greatness. Then I will not be dragged either to the left or to the right, and with all these inclinations I will nonetheless maintain the direction toward the Creator, toward adhesion with Him.

Thus, we can see that when the evil inclination pulls me toward all kinds of pleasures of various kinds, it actually awakens precisely those directions and methods of work in me through which I build the form of my inclinations toward the Creator. Through this, I build my Partzuf in all its forms, my “Partzuf of holiness.”

That is, the evil inclination does precisely the correct work, both in quantity and in quality, in sequence, in causal order, and in the various forms of its revelation within me. It gives me exactly those temptations which, by inverting them and striving toward the Creator against their background, I thereby add more and more to my “Partzuf of holiness.”
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/9/26, Rabash, “It is Forbidden to Hear a Good Thing from a Bad Person”

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Question: Why did some things happen in the material world first and only subsequently happen in the spiritual world, whereas in other cases it is the other way around?

Answer: Everything that belongs to the “preparatory phase,” prior to entering the spiritual world, first takes material form and then the time comes for its inner fulfillment.

A person goes through two stages. He is born as an animal, and from the moment the “point in the heart” is implanted in him, we start counting his “human” life; the word “man – Adam”  is from the word “Adameh,” which means “I shall become like the upper.” It is a striving that stems from the point in the heart.

If, throughout the course of all his previous incarnations, he existed in this world merely as matter, without a point in the heart, acquiring desires for money, honor, and knowledge, it is completely normal and natural. But none of this counts. There is a certain “accounting” for this, but it has nothing to do with a person’s individual spiritual advancement.

Personal advancement begins the moment he feels his “point in the heart.” From this moment on, his work is called “the time of preparation for entering spirituality.”

The preparatory stage can last 10, 15, or even 20 years, or it could take 5 years, and even, as Baal HaSulam writes in the “Introduction to The Study of the Ten Sefirot,” as little as 3 years. It depends on the person’s efforts. It may be that he will achieve some advancement, and then die until the next reincarnation. And who knows what will happen in this new incarnation. It all depends on his efforts. If he is lucky, he will join the group and increase his pace; if he is not, he will not.

It is said that everything depends on “luck” (Mazal). “Mazal” is from the word “Nozel – flowing.” The faster these drops “flow” into a person, the more his Kli is filled. If they “drip” slowly, a person will have to wait several lifetimes.

So we count the first stage from the appearance of a point in the heart to the entrance into the spiritual world, and the second stage is working in the spiritual world. This process corresponds to manifesting in matter in our world. All these things that correspond to the spiritual roots of the preparatory phase, have already occurred and nothing more is needed. The material realization here precedes the spiritual one.

When we talk about the stages of spiritual work: the correction of the Kli, the construction of the Temple, that is, about the second stage, from the Machsom onward, then spiritual work is required there first, and as a result of this, a person builds the material aspects of his life here, including the Land of Israel, which he develops to the degree he is in the Land of Israel internally.

In the same way the nation is formed according to their spiritual attainment, and finally, a Third Temple is built after a person reaches a state called a Temple.

Thus, the states corresponding to the preparation phase, starting from the point in the heart and up to crossing the Machsom, first occur in the material world, and then in a person, in his inner world. Whereas everything that has to do with the second phase, from the Machsom to the final correction (Gmar Tikun), first occur as spiritual stages within a person, society, and then in the material world.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/8/26, Rabash, “Come unto Pharaoh – 2”

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Question: What is the difference between the states “goes” and “does”?

Answer: “Goes” means that a person has some urge to advance, when he thinks that in the next state, he will be closer to the Creator, closer to the possibility of bestowing. This means that he has an intention to come to bestowal in some form.

Here there are two states: the present one and the next one, and he is already moving between them, passing from one to the other. Therefore, he is called “one who goes.”

And another sits and appears to be he doing something. This means that he was given the opportunity to come here and sit with us. And still this is also called an “action.”

He has no aspiration to come to something. “Bestowal, adhesion, Creator”; these words can be pronounced just like that, but they do not come from the person’s inner feeling.
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From the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 4/11/26, Rabash, “What Are the Four Qualities of Those Who Go to the Seminary, in the Work?”

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